ICHTHYOBUS BUBALUS 215 



IcUajobus ranchii Putnam, Bull. Mus. Coinp. Zool. 10, 1863. 



Ictliijobns mHc/(i/ Jordan & Copeland, Check List, 158, 187G. 



Ictliyoiiis rauchii Jord^vn & Gilbert, in Klippart's Kept. 53, 1876. 



Ichthyohus rauchii Jordan, Man. Vert. ed. 2d, 323, 1878. 

 185.^ — Icihyobus siolleyi Agassiz, Am. Journ. Sc. Arts, 2d series, xix, 196. 



Ictkyobus siolleyi Jordan & Copeland, Check List, 158, 1876. 

 1877— Icthyobus ischyrus Nelson, MSS. — Jordan, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila. 72. 



Icthyobus ischyrus Jordan & Copeland, Check List, 158, 1876. 



Icthyobus ischyrus Jordan & Gilbert, in Klippart's Rept. 53, 1876. 



Ichthyohus ischyrus Jordan, Man. Vert. ed. 2d, 323, 1878. 



Habitat. — Mississippi Valley ; generally abundant in the larger streams. 



An examiuation of a large series of wide-moutbed Buffalo fishes 

 from the Ohio, Wabash, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers has convioced 

 uie, contrary to my previous impressions, that all belong to a single 

 species. It is not absolutely certain what Eafinesque's Catostomus 

 bubalus was. It is perhaps as likely to have been a species of Buba- 

 Hchthys, as supposed by Dr. Kirtland, as an Ichthyobm. I however 

 follow Professor Agassiz in identifying it with the present species, 

 which is, at the Falls of the Ohio, where Eafinesque's collections were 

 made, probably the most abundaut of the Buffalo-fishes. Neither 

 Rafinesque nor Professor Agassiz has, however, recognizably described 

 the species. In my Manual of Vertebrates, in 1876, I gave a short 

 account of Ichthyobus bubalus, dravfn from two large specimens taken in 

 Wabash River at Lafayette. Besides these, I have numerous smaller 

 specimens, obtained in the Mississippi at Saint Louis. As these differed 

 in the greater compression of the body and higher fins, 1 have identi- 

 fied them as belonging to Ichthyobus rauchii Agassiz, an identification 

 which I still think correct. In 1877, Mr. Nelson described an Ichthyobus 

 ischyrus, Irom Mackinaw Creek, a tributary of the Illinois River, near 

 Peoria. His typical specimen was very stout and deep, and at the time I 

 thought with him that it was probably distinct from I. bubalus. Lately I 

 have been enabled to re-examine the type of 1. ischyrusin the State Museum 

 of Illinois, and to compare it with a numerous series from the same 

 locality. I found it possible to establish an unbroken series among 

 them, connecting the nominal species which 1 had termed bubalus, 

 rauchii, and ischyrus, the differences separating them being, in my opin- 

 ion, due either to differences of age or to individual peculiarities. As 

 no description of any importance has been published of I. stollcyi, I 

 include it as a synonym of I. bubalus. I know nothing whatever con- 

 cerning it. Ichthyobus cyane'lus Nelson, as below stated, is a species of 



